Ex-Pa. lawmaker to be sentenced in corruption case

Then Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, addresses the Senate floor at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., in June 2007. The former leader of Pennsylvania's Senate Democrats is due in court Friday to be sentenced in a public corruption case involving the misuse of his taxpayer-funded staff. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

SCRANTON, Pa. — The former leader of Pennsylvania’s Senate Democrats was in court Friday to be sentenced in a public corruption case involving the misuse of his taxpayer-funded staff.

Robert Mellow, long one of the most powerful figures in state government, pleaded guilty in May to a federal conspiracy charge. Prosecutors are seeking at least two years in prison.

Mellow was charged with using his own Senate staff and staffers for other Democratic senators to run political campaigns in violation of state law.

Defense attorney Daniel Brier argued Mellow, 69, should be spared prison and instead receive probation because of his charitable works, poor health and the fact that he’s a caregiver for his severely disabled adult daughter.

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The defense, seeking to keep Mellow out of prison, argued that his many charitable and good works, his age and ill health, and the emotional and medical fragility of his severely disabled adult daughter all warranted a sentence of probation.

Defense lawyer Sal Cognetti also bemoaned what he called the criminalization of politics, contending the line that separates campaigning from legislating had been blurry. He portrayed Mellow as an old-school politician whose primary sin was being too slow to change with the times.

“Let’s not be too quick to bury him. Let’s not be too quick to judge him. Let’s consider his entire life,” said Cognetti, who read a few of the more than 200 character letters submitted on Mellow’s behalf by constituents, clergy, business and community leaders, and politicians ranging from former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell to former GOP state senator and Lt. Gov. Robert Jubelirer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis Sempa said Mellow deliberately evaded the law to further his own political career, and deserved to go to prison.

“This is a sad day in Pennsylvania political history because someone who was such an accomplished and effective legislator threw it all away,” he said. “Sen. Mellow corrupted his office ... for his own personal benefit.”

Mellow, who will be sentenced by a federal judge in Scranton, served 40 years in the state Senate and was among that chamber’s most powerful members. He was the Senate’s longest-serving member when he left two years ago after deciding not to run for an 11th term.

Mellow was the Democrats’ floor leader for most of the last two decades he was in office, and his portrait hangs in the state Capitol because he served as the Senate president pro tempore for about 16 months from 1992 to 1994.

He announced in February 2010 that he would retire at the end of the year because he wanted to spend more time with his daughters and grandchildren. In June of that year, federal agents searched his home and district office as part of a joint investigation with the Internal Revenue Service into allegations of illegal activity, an FBI spokesman said at the time.

A number of state lawmakers and their aides have been prosecuted in recent years for misusing public funds and resources for campaigns and other purposes. In the House, a long-running state attorney general’s investigation resulted in convictions against former Speakers Bill DeWeese and John Perzel, former Reps. Brett Feese and Mike Veon, and others. In the Senate, Jane Orie was convicted in state court and Vince Fumo in federal court.

Mellow continued misusing Senate staff for political fundraising and campaign work even during the state investigation, prosecutors noted in court documents this week, demonstrating “a remarkable lack of respect, and even contempt, for the law.”